Grattan Institute Event on Well-Being

Thanks to Colm for sending a link to the details of a recent event on well-being held by the Grattan Insitute in Melbourne.

Around the world governments are recognising that there is more to life – and government – than GDP. The Australian Government Treasury has developed a “wellbeing” framework for evaluating policy and outcomes, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics has developed a project named “Measures of Australia’s Progress”. Both aim to broaden the objectives and measures of government beyond purely economic indicators.

These developments, and how public policy in Australia might change as a result, was discussed by Dr Ken Henry, Secretary to the Treasury, Don Henry, CEO, Australian Conservation Foundation and Gemma Van Halderen, Social Data Integration and Analysis Branch, Australian Bureau of Statistics.

This is the last in a series of three seminars about social and environmental measures for public policy. The panel discussed how wellbeing frameworks are already being used in Practice in Australia, how they might develop, and how they might influence the future development of public policy.

This seminar was presented by Grattan Institute, in conjunction with the McCaughey Centre, the Centre for Public Policy of the University of Melbourne and Trinity College.